Today's tonight's text comes from Mark chapter 3, if you have a Bible you can follow along if you don't, it's on the back of your order of worship. Said he heard the word of God. Again he entered the synagogue and a man was there with a withered hand and they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him and he said to the man with a withered hand, come here. He said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill, but they were silent and he looked around at them with anger, grieved at the hardness of their heart and said to the man, stretch out your hand and he stretched it out and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
Father I pray that you would come tonight and open the eyes of the blind in the ears of the deaf. I pray that you would teach us of the grace of Christ, in my head and in my thinking, in my heart and in my understanding and in my mouth and in my speaking. Christ's name would pray these things, amen, and amen. Well the text I just read to you is the fifth, it's the last of five conflicts that Jesus has had with the Pharisees that ultimately ends in them plotting to destroy him. If you remember, if you've been coming to the morning or the evening services, you should know these five conflicts by heart, I'm guessing by now, where the first conflict that Jesus had with the Pharisees in this book, it was one of authority, the men lower paralytic through the roof and when they lower the paralytic before Jesus, he looks at him instead of saying be healed, he looks at the man and says, my son, your sins are forgiven and the Pharisees basically say, what do you think you are that you can forgive sins, only God can forgive sins and Jesus replies, remember, I told you this morning, bingo, right, you got it. If you're upset by that, you understand exactly what I'm saying, remember it reminds me of Mark Twain, Mark Twain always says it's not the part to the Bible that he didn't understand that bothered him, it was a part to the Bible that he did and the reason that the Pharisees get so upset with Jesus is not because they don't understand them, it's not because he's confusing to them, it's because they understand exactly what he's saying. The second conflict had to do with his audacity, remember that the Pharisees avoided immoral people, they avoided people of lower class if you will, farmers and fishermen and anyone who had used foul language and Jesus actually not only called them to himself as in the case of Levi, but he calls this tax collector who everyone would have hated and then he goes and says, let's have a party at your house. So Jesus holds a feast for tax collectors and sinners and they ask why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners. And Jesus said, it's the sick who need a doctor, not the healthy. A strike two for the Pharisees, strike three coming up is the issue of fasting. They said that John's disciples fast and the Pharisees fast and why don't your disciples fast? Why aren't they good religious boys like us and Jesus said they can't fast when the bridegroom is with them. In other words, in the middle of the feast, you're an idiot if you fast and Jesus said the bridegroom is here, that would be me in case you're wondering, okay? Conflict number three, okay? Conflict number four, we looked at this morning, he had to do it with the Sabbath, remember his disciples are going through and they're picking grain on the Sabbath and Jesus basically says, they come and says, oh, we finally got you. Your disciples are working on the Sabbath basically and you remember what Jesus did? He said, you know, have you never read the Bible? Don't you remember what David did when he was hungry with his man? He went in and ate the bread of the presence, which was unlawful. And the point was this morning when we looked at the texts that came right before this, is just the human need, Trump's ceremony along. In other words, human need, Trump's religion, human need, Trump's observance of the Sabbath, the human need, in this case, hunger is more important. And now, you'd think the Pharisees would stop and the Pharisees, if you're not familiar, they were the religious people of Jesus' days, they were the legalists, they were the sort of self-righteous folks that everyone would cringe at if you're not like them. And so basically, you would think they would stop, that Jesus has stumped them once again and the story ends and they're quiet, and that's where we pick up tonight. The Pharisees are going to give it one more shot. And basically, we're going to look at three things tonight if you're a note-taker. We're going to look at the malice of the Pharisees. We're going to look at the grace of Jesus and we're going to look at the shadow of the cross. Let's look first at the malice of the Pharisees. Versus 1 and 2, it says again, he entered the synagogue that's Jesus and a man was there with a withered hand and they watched Jesus, that is the Pharisees, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so they might accuse him. So Jesus goes into the synagogue, there's a man there with a withered hand. No big deal. There are probably lots of people like that. But what's interesting here is the Pharisees, remember I told you this morning, they're like stalkers, they're constantly following Jesus around trying to catch him doing something wrong and they never do. And they go to the synagogue, there's a man with a withered hand and they watch Jesus to see if he's going to heal him. Now think about how crazy that is. Do you see what the Pharisees actually believe? The Pharisees don't doubt that Jesus can heal the man. The Pharisees don't doubt that Jesus has the ability to make his hand better but the Pharisees are more concerned with catching him doing some kind of work on the Sabbath because if they can catch him do some kind of work on the Sabbath, then they'll be able to arrest him and eventually kill him. The Pharisees are malicious, Pharisees are always the question and I brought it up this morning. The question you have to ask yourself are you more concerned with being right or you more concerned with being made right? The Pharisees are so concerned with being right that right before their eyes, the irony is they know Jesus can heal and instead of embracing him for who he said he was, they wait and watch to see if he might heal on the Sabbath. Now the interesting thing is there was no law against healing on the Sabbath or there was no law and there's no fairisaical tradition, there's no scribal tradition. In fact, scribal tradition, the Pharisees tradition said that the human need or human emergency trumps obedience to the Sabbath law. So if there's an emergency, if there's a life and death situation, the Pharisees said you can do something about it. Now the issue with the Pharisees is they were the ones who decided whether it was life or death, not someone else. And so you see this man with a withered hand. They probably been there who knows how long he could have been there his whole life for all we know. But it certainly wasn't a life or death situation. And so what they would have thought is that okay, so you can heal people, big deal. At least you can wait till Monday or you can wait till Tuesday. Why would you violate the Sabbath in order to heal this guy, even if you are a Mr. Big Healer guy, why would you do it? And so they're waiting and watching to see if what Jesus will do. And you've got to love Jesus. Remember I told you the thing about Jesus is Jesus never backs down from a fight. And Jesus is humble, but he's not very modest. In other words, he's willing to basically always say, what are you going to do with me? And so notice the grace of Jesus. But also the anger of Jesus, verse three, they're waiting to see so they might accuse him and he that is Jesus says to the man with a withered hand, come here. Now it doesn't communicate in English what Jesus was doing. This was in the middle of a sentence. It would be like in the middle of a church service. And the Pharisees are waiting to see if he's going to heal the guy in the middle, pew with a withered hand. And Jesus stands up and says, come here. In other words, he calls the man out. He makes the guy come out into the middle of the crowd. And so in some sense, it's a great act of faith on the part of the man with a withered hand because it would have been embarrassing. Remember in those days they thought if you had some kind of physical ailment that you'd send, you'd done something wrong. And so this man, imagine him, imagine his surprise when Jesus says, come here. I want you to stand in the middle of the congregation and so here's this man standing in the middle of the congregation. Who knows what he was thinking? And he's up there with his withered hand. And Jesus instead of healing him asks the Pharisees a question. Notice what he asks him. He says in verse four, he said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill? The question Jesus just asked them is a question like unto the question, have you stopped beating your wife yet? The tension with that question of someone says, you know Bob, if you stop beating your wife and if you say yes, then the implication is you've been beating her. If you say no, then the implication is you are but you can't win. And so Jesus asked the Pharisees, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm? Is it lawful to save life or to heal or to kill? Which is it? Because remember, whenever you try and put Jesus in the dock and be his judge, he always switches on you and he becomes a judge and you're now in the dock, defend yourself. What are they going to say to that? Because if they say no, it's not lawful to do good on the Sabbath, well they'd be just wrong. And what Jesus does to them, if you remember if you were here this morning, when they confronted Jesus this morning and saying, why are your disciples doing that which is not lawful? They peeled to the law. They did this in rabbinical circles, what have been called halakha or halakha. Jesus does that to them. Jesus appeals to the law. In other words, he does to them what they tried to do to him earlier. He appeals to the law and say, what's the law say? Do good or do harm, save life or to kill. And if they say do harm or if they say do nothing, then they actually would be guilty of breaking the law. You see, it's one thing to say you can't do good, but to refuse someone mercy would also be sinful. So now the Pharisees are in this tight spot. What are they going to do? Because if they say yes, that you can do that, then they've basically affirmed everything they're trying to catch Jesus doing. And if they say no, they'll be transgressing their own law. So what do they do? They're silent. They're silent. And see, the problem with self-righteousness is either you're going to either hold on to your own righteousness or you give up your own righteousness and receive the righteousness of Jesus. In other words, are you either going to be your own Savior or are you going to let Jesus save you? Because you can't have both. And what they are doing now, because what would be the right thing to do? What would be the smart thing to do if you're a Pharisee? You've been trying to stump this guy over and over and over again. And every time he beats you, not only does he beat you, every time he makes you look like an idiot, at some point, if you're wise, what would you do? You'd say you got me. I'm sorry for trying to constantly accuse you. I'm sorry for trying to consult you got me. You're right, but instead the Pharisees are silent. They don't say anything. And in their silence, basically is almost in a middle that Jesus is right. It's certainly not a consent that he's right, but it's a tacit admission that he's right. Notice how Jesus responds to them. As he looked around at them with anger, grieved at the hardness of their heart and said to the man, stretch out your hand. He stretched it out and his hand was restored. So notice how Jesus deals with the Pharisees. He looks at them on one hand, he's angry. He's angry at their sin. He's angry at their self-righteousness. On the other hand, he's grieved at the hardness of their heart. You see, Grace always does two things. One of two things. It's either softens your heart or grace hardens your heart. I had an eye-opening experience of reading through a book called The Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges, and it's basically written in the 1850s about what ministers experience. And I'd never thought of this. He said that the gospel always does one of two things. It either softens people or it hardens people. Because as a pastor, you wonder sometimes you're like, man, why can't someone just get with the program? Why do they complain? Why are they angry? Why are they mean all the time? People are religious and self-righteous because the gospel either softens you or it hardens you. Grace either shows you that you don't have what it takes and God's willing to give it, or Grace makes you knuckle down and try and do it all the more. Remember what the line from amazing Grace has, was, grace that taught my heart to fear. And grace my fears relieve. You see, Grace doesn't only make you feel good. Grace oftentimes makes you feel uncomfortable because it points out what you don't have. And Jesus was both angry at them, but he was also grieved at the hardness of their heart. It was the hardness of their heart that kept them from Jesus, not their badness. In other words, the thing that's most likely to separate people from Jesus is not their badness. If you read through the New Testament, the prostitutes and the tax collectors and the sinners, they flock to Jesus. The badness didn't keep them away from Jesus. What kept them, what kept people from Jesus was always their goodness. It was their hardness of heart. Don't tell me that I don't have to do anything to earn my salvation. Don't tell me that I'm not going to get any credit for doing and being good. Jesus was grieved at that. And you notice what he did. He healed the man. He said, it's actually quite amazing. He said to the man, stretch out your hand. He stretched it out and his hand was restored. And this is really a stick in the eye of the Pharisees, because they were hoping he would heal the man with the with the withered hand like he healed the Pharisee, the leper. If you remember earlier, at the end of chapter one, how Jesus healed the leper, it says he looked on him with compassion and he touched him. He would have done some work, in other words, in the Pharisees' eyes. He would have been, according to their strict letter of the law, by touching the man, he would have done some work and therefore he would have been guilty and they could accuse him. But remember, Jesus doesn't have to touch to heal. So Jesus tells the man, stretch out your hand. And the man stretches out his hand, and it's better. Jesus hasn't done one lick of work. He hasn't done anything that they might accuse him of. So not only is Jesus put them in a position where they're silent now, which is better to do harm or to do good, but now he's actually healed the man without touching him. So now what are they going to do? They either have one of two choices that now, at this point, they either need to bow down to him and say, you're the man where they need to kill him, they need to kill him. And that's where you see in this, the end of this, you see the shadow of the cross, right at the very beginning of the book of Mark, you see what's coming. The end of the story is predicted. Notice in verse six, the shadow of the cross, the Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. Now if you're into conspiracy theories and things that are sinister, this is really sinister. It's really bad because the Pharisees would have been the ones, the guardians of Orthodoxy and Judaism. They would have been the ones who were religious, those are the ones who were keeping everything together for the Jews and the Herodians would have been traitors. Remember Herod Antipas was the Jewish, quote, king that was placed in by the Romans. He would have been a totty of the Romans, a servant of the Romans and the Herodians were politicians who would have supported Herod. And so when the Pharisees and the Herodians team up against Jesus, it doesn't get much worse than that. In other words, you all probably heard the cliche, right, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. That's what they've done here. In other words, the two mortal enemies, the Pharisees and the Herodians, hated each other. They wouldn't speak to each other, but Jesus is such a challenge to both of them, that they plot together to see how they might destroy him. Because how does Jesus challenge and Jesus challenges the religious people? Because he basically says you're religion can't save you. Your morality can't save you. Your goodness can't save you. In fact, your goodness separates you from me. The only thing that can save you is me, that I'll go to the cross, and at the cross, the irony is that by killing him, they did the very thing that he was hoping for. You see, at the cross, Jesus took all the sins about the righteous and the unrighteous onto himself. And for the religious, he says all your original world won't do anything. But also for the political, one of the problems I think in American Christianity is so politicized. I mean, it's amazing. Many of you read the article, I wrote in the newsletter, the happiest day of my life in the past five years was November 5th. That's because we voted for a president. I didn't care who it was. I just wanted it to be over. Because as a pastor, I was barrage so much by people who said you need to tell us to vote for McCain, where you need to tell people they need to vote for Obama. If they care about the poor, they need to vote for Obama. And other people say, if you care about abortion, you need to vote for McCain. And you know what? I had to tell everyone, your politics can't save you. Barack Obama can't save you, John McCain can't save you. No politician can save you. Being on the right side of the aisle or the left side of the aisle, I guess, it doesn't matter. That might be what your opinion is, politically speaking, but politics is not the answer. What the answer is, is a relationship with Jesus. Jesus is the only one who has any hope. Are you worried about what's going on in the country? I am. I mean, my family, I'm sure sick of me sitting in front of the television, watching the news all the time. You don't have to remind myself that Jesus is in control of all that, not politicians. So religion can't save you in politics, can't save you what can. One thing, a relationship with Jesus. If you're not a Christian, I just ask you to consider that. I'm not going to ask you to walk the aisle, like the man with the withered hand. On the other hand, if you are a Christian, I'd ask you to consider that. Because even if you're a Christian, if you're reminded over and over again, that it's not your religion, it's not your goodness, it's not your politics, but it's the one whom you say you trust. Think about that. Let's pray. Other, I pray that as we consider Jesus dealing with the Pharisees, we consider this issue of the Sabbath that we would also keep in mind, that although you, God, rested from your work of creation on the Sabbath, you didn't rest from your work of providence, you didn't rest from showing mercy, you didn't rest from showing justice, and I pray that we as well wouldn't rest from doing good either. And I pray that goodness would be derived, that of a goodness we received from you and not in an effort to achieve a favor with you, because we already had it. Christ's name, we pray these things, Amen, and Amen.